The state of the art in machine vision inspection and a critical overview of real-world applications are presented in this paper. Two
independent ways to classify applications are proposed, one according to the inspected features of the industrial product or process and the
other according to the inspection independent characteristics of the inspected product or process. The most contemporary software and
hardware tools for developing industrial vision systems are reviewed. Finally, under the light of recent advances in image sensors, software
and hardware technology, important issues and directions for designing and developing industrial vision systems are identified and discussed.
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